In His law meditate day and night—this man shall be blessed

This book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth but meditate day and night in it. Then you will make your way prosperous and have good success. Joshua 1:8  

(see also Psalm 1, 19 and 119))

How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

Blessed are you, O LORD; teach me your statutes!

With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth.

In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches.

I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.

I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word. Psalm 119

I read once that Hebrew mothers would read some Scripture to their little ones while giving them some honey or sweet tasting treat (associating pleasant memory with learning God’s word). Jewish people usually have a ornate small box with Scripture in it attached to the door frames of their houses. Priests wore similar little “Bible boxes” around their foreheads in reference to Deut 6:9.

 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)

Deut 11:21 adds this promise to the command that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are

above the earth.”

Memorization has become harder for me – probably reflective of short term memory problems of getting older. Other hindrances are stress, mind-clutter of anxieties, discouragements, weariness and temptations. These all take their toll in my concentration. This has disappointed me for years because when I was a new Christ-follower, in my busy college years, I always carried memory cards and memorized hundreds of verses. The more often I pulled them our of my pocket, the more I committed to memory, the easier it seemed to be to absorb even more. I genuinely loved doing it and sometimes even made up little jingles or wrote songs which I can still sing today.

In fact, in the 1970’s we sang Scripture songs as part of our corporate worship and could learn much of God’s Word that way.

Some things have helped me:

1. Writing them down, keeping them handy and reading them aloud so I am using eye, hand, voice, ear, and mind to get them into my heart.

2. Intoning or chanting them or singing Scripture in my heart and to one another heart (Eph 5:19).

3. Associating specific words with images like a story board.

4. Repeating a phrase slowly, emphasizing a different word each time.

5. I’m told that slow, deliberate, going over and over style of memorizing tends to work it into long-term memory, rather than short-term.

6. Dallas Willard wrote that the fundamental thing is to direct and redirect our minds constantly to God. The first thing is to keep God before our eyes, as David said. (Psalms 16:8-9)

In this way we can break old habits and replace them so that God becomes the “polestar” of our inward beings. Jesus is the door, life, and way. Receive him, open to him, and direct our attention to him. This is done best by memorizing and meditating on the Gospels. 

It’s best to concentrate on memorizing great passages. It’s actually more important than a “quiet time” because meditation on the Scriptures can fill the day. The law gets in our mouth by memorization and dwelling on it through meditation.

The Hebrew Word for meditation is used in various word pictures:

Strongs #1965: haghah  coo, growl, murmer; speak, roar, chirp…

These are incoherent sounds like mumbling, sighing in delight while eating something delicious or being full of anticipation (like a dog delightfully gnawing a bone). It is used of quiet and calm reflection like the gentle cooing of a dove, or like the slow and imperceptible melting of a lozenge in our mouth. Meditation can involve feeling strong emotion like a lion growling over its prey.

So, be a lion or a cow, because meditation can vary by engaging strong emotion and passion with noisy sounds or it may be peaceful repetition: chew the cud-swallow-regurgitate-repeat-until it passes through all seven stomachs in order to become sweet milk.

(I am indebted to Pastor Steve Humble who testified recently: “I’m no expert, but I am seeing a difference in my thinking and sometimes in my behavior these days.”)

 

Pray the Jesus Prayer so that breath becomes Life centered in Him

God be merciful to me a sinner; Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. (Luke 18:13, 38; (see also Matthew 20:30).

Blind men, lepers and sinners cried out to God for the mercies of forgiveness and healing. They recognized Jesus as Messiah, the Anointed King, Son of David. Their faith revealed Him and received Him as the Son of God. Their simple prayer was of faith that “made them well.”

From earliest times the church has prayed the simple Jesus prayer, as easily as breathing in and out, in a short or longer form: “Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner. Visit and heal my infirmities for your name’s sake.”

(The following is excerpted and edited from John Michael Talbot’s, The Ancient Path. He describes a way to “pray without ceasing.” I use a simple cross and beads to help me in the night, while driving, while sitting in a meeting, or watching a movie, etc. This practice helps me meditate on Him, intercede for others and overcome anxiety. If interested in beads or a cross ask me.)

The Desert Fathers had encouraged the use of aspirations, and Augustine had counseled a busy widow in his parish to imitate the Egyptian hermits in this way. Nor was devotion to the name of Jesus anything new. Saint Paul had long before told the Philippians: “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth” (2:10). And the pages of the Acts of the Apostles are replete with the primitive Church’s devotion to the holy name (see, for example, 2:38, 3:6, 4:10, 8:12, 9:27, etc.). From the first generation, the Church had prescribed Jesus’s name for the expulsion of demons, the healing of ailments, and the correction of error.

A way to pray without ceasing in our busy lives

If our goal is to make Jesus the single focal point of life, and to make our prayer to him as constant as breath try this: 

Breathe in: Lord.

Breathe out: Jesus.

It’s not mechanical. It’s not magical. It’s love. People do heroic things for love. They give up drinking or drugs or gambling, but the way they overcome is by keeping their beloved in mind when faced with temptation. So they’re faced with a stark choice between the loved one or the vice. If our prayer is Jesus, we will have him always before us. We will have the habit of preferring nothing to him. And, like the apostles, we can do all things in him who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13) and in his holy name.

The Jesus prayer became a compact creed: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” That simple formula includes elements of adoration, contrition, and supplication. It confesses Jesus’s divinity and our own sinfulness. It’s as hard as diamond, but it rises lightly as breath. It has sustained the inner life of ascetics and ordinary folk in the Eastern churches for well over a millennium…

300 knots of prayer

Eastern Christians sometimes pray the Jesus Prayer while they count the recitations on a string of beads or knots. Pastor Dennis Cole wears an elastic band of beads around his wrist to help him pray. I was showing my little string of beads to Bob Johnson, my spiritual director, and he agreed with how helpful it is, then he opened his desk and pulled out a string with 300 knots in it. It was a good reminder to me that I am a novice in prayer and not a spiritual giant.

How can we pray when there’s so much else we have to get done?

The Eastern Fathers offered a way to approach the problem. We can key our prayer to our every breath. The Eastern (Orthodox) Fathers tell us to invoke the name and person of Jesus with every breath we take. Think about it: breathing is the one thing we do without ceasing. If we’re living, we’re breathing. When we stop breathing, we’re dead.

I am learning to “ask for His grace to pray with His effect in me

I try to begin prayer times by asking God’s grace to help me pray and that my prayer have a good effect in me. I ask the grace to know Jesus, love Him and bring him glory to him in prayer and through the day. It is humbling to admit that I need supernatural and present assistance to praise, worship, pray and read the Scripture into my mind and heart. Paul wrote that prayer is a work of the Spirit (Rom 8:26-27). Prayer is not something we could do on our own. God is transcendent. He is wholly “other” from us. But he gives us his Spirit to pray within us, so we can say with Jesus, “Abba! Father!” (Rom 8:14; Gal 4:6).

In both Hebrew and Greek, the word for “breath” and “Spirit” is one and the same—in Hebrew, ruah; in Greek, pneuma. Prayer is possible because we have the breath of God. The Fathers tell us to unite every breath to God.

Preparing a room for God or for sin

John Michael Talbot learned that he could not keep parts of life “purely for himself, apart from God. If I did that, I was preparing a room for sin. If I could pray from the heart, if I could pray with every breath, I would leave myself no opportunity to build a reservation for self and sin. I would sooner stop breathing. I would sooner die.”

Personal and corporate new beginning

A good place to read at this time for us, is Ezra, where is recorded the story of the exiles returning to Jerusalem. Chapter 1 begins with the proclamation of Cyrus, king of Persia, and his praise to God and authorizing the return of the exiles with all the help and support they need. This included the restoration to them of that which had been stolen by previous King Nebuchadnezzar.

In chapter 3, verses one through six we have a description of their new beginning in dedication and worship. We can identify seven significant points in these verses, which have direct application to us. They first had to rebuild the foundation and alter to God, then renew sacrifices. Remember, it had been 70 years since their captivity so no sacrifices had been made to God during their captivity.

1. Peace: In verse one the people settled in their town according to their inheritance being restored.

2. Unity: The people then assembled "as one man" in Jerusalem.

3. Rebuilding: the people began together to build the altar of God.

4. Daily Covenant Obedience overcame their fears: their relationship with God was renewed in worship as they offered the morning and evening sacrifices of whole burnt offerings on it according to God's direction in the law.

5. Corporate worship: they also gathered together and celebrated the feast of Tabernacles as prescribed.

6. Special times of remembrance: they also presented the regular monthly sacrifices and participated in all the feast of the Lord.

7. Willing hearts brought offerings: the people brought free will offerings even though the temple had not begun to be rebuilt yet.

Generations United: Verses 7-13 describe how they supported those who were rebuilding and how they joined in praise and thanksgiving in song to the Lord: "he is good; his love to Israel endures forever." We read that the older members who had seen the former temple, wept aloud while the younger generation shouted for joy. We know that the new temple was smaller than the old which may have been one reason for the weeping. Or, it may be that they were overcome with emotion, for the restoration of the temple for them and the future generations. Obviously, the younger generation rejoice for their ownership and participation in this new beginning. 

Overcoming demonic resistance and personal sins: For further reading see the profit Haggai and read the rest of Ezra's writings about how the people united together, overcoming enemies and turning away from their own personal sins. 

Let us all seek personal applications: praying morning and evening, gathering for special times of worship, contributing from willing hearts, uniting the generations and forsaking sins.

Dwight